How is childhood presented in Games at Twilight Essay Example for Free

How is childhood presented in Games at Twilight Essay There are many similarities between the ways that childhood is presented in these two short stories. When acting as a group, the children are frequently portrayed as cruel and aggressive. In The Red Ball the young boy is given a variety of cruel names by other children due to his thin frame, for example Thinny Boney and Match-stick foot. This shows the brutal honesty of children of a young age. In Games at Twilight the children are rough and belligerent, shown by the shoves became harder and the frequent quarrelling of the children over who will be It in their game of hide and seek. In Games at Twilight the children are frequently shown in an animalistic light. The authors use of vocabulary reveals this, for example wild, maniacal, and snarling. Words such as prey, stalked and pounded relate to hunting in the animal kingdom, and therefore reinforce the authors portrayal of children as animalistic. In The Red Ball Bolan is said to have waited like a small animal, so children are again compared to animals. The fact that the children in both stories play their games in large groups could represent the packs that animals exist in in the wild. By using animalistic images the authors are able to reinforce their portrayal of children as cruel and aggressive. Childish games seem to hold great significance to the children in both stories. In Games at Twilight the author says that the children are desperate to start their business the business of the childrens day which is play. By making the children in the story so dependent on games the author suggests that the children have basic, immature values, since play is not an adult business. In The Red Ball games also hold a great significance for the children it is Bolans ability to play cricket well that gains him acceptance amongst the other children. It is obvious that friendships are built when games are participated in, as Bolan steals money from his parents to buy a red cricket ball in order to be more highly thought of by his friends. It is interesting to see that the games in both of the stories are carried out outdoors. In The Red Ball the author writes the boys played cricket until the fireflies came out. In Games at Twilight Raghu is described as crashing and storming in the hedge wilder. Thus the children in both stories are more closely linked to nature, reinforcing the authors portrayal of them as animals. In both stories the main characters are portrayed as outcasts. In The Red Ball the young boy watches other children play cricket from the outskirts of the park, and in Games at Twilight young Ravi hides alone, only to find that the other children have quite forgotten him. The difference between the stories is that the young boy in The Red Ball is eventually accepted by his peers and revered by them he becomes their star bowler and therefore essential for their game. In Games at Twilight we are led to believe that Ravi will eventually be accepted by the other children for winning the game of hide and seek he smiled to himself at the thought of so much victory. However Ravi never achieves such victory as the other children forget about him having disappeared from the scene, he had disappeared from their minds. Clean. By using such a short sentence, clean, the author is stressing the fact that Ravi was forgotten by his peers, and therefore emphasises his insignificance to the other children; he is bottom of the pecking order. In Games at Twilight young Ravi is portrayed as rather unintelligent and cowardly. He is frequently described as fearful Ravi shook with fear. His desperation to be accepted by his siblings shows that he is not highly thought of, and is also somewhat pathetic. Thinking that he will win the childish game of hide and seek he thinks that nothing more wonderful had ever happened to him. His unimportance is confirmed in the final sentence of the story he lay down full length on the damp grass silenced by a terrible sense of his insignificance. In The Red Ball Bolan is portrayed as a somewhat more intelligent, wise individual. He is capable enough to understand that by replying when he is called offensive names by the other children, he will be labelled with those names. He is also able to comprehend more difficult family situations, and shows perception and intelligence when the author writes it was one of those moments when he felt as if he had held his mother in front of him as a sort of shield to save himself from a rain of blows. In conclusion, the presentation of childhood in the two short stories, Games at Twilight and The Red Ball varies. The main characters, when alone, are portrayed as more innocent individuals, whereas when in larger groups, the children seem to be more cruel and hostile. Games at Twilight offers the less favourable impression of children overall, frequently incorporating animalistic images into the story to describe the children.

A Transcendence of Exhaustion? :: Free Essays Online

A Transcendence of Exhaustion? In his article "Power and Weakness", Robert Kagan offers an insightful explanation of recent trends in transatlantic relations. He puts forth a very elegantly systemic explanation for this unraveling, or at least schism, of the West that seems to be taking place under our very noses. And yet for all its apparent clarity, Kagan's underlying argument is a myopic one, a model in need of a corrective lens in order to gain any significant predictive power. Luckily, current events offer an indispensable laboratory for testing some aspects of Kagan's ideas, while even our class' very circumscribed readings in the field equip us to spot major shortcomings of the argument. Kagan posits that a Kantian "perpetual peace" has emerged in Europe in the decade after the Cold War's demise. (211) America, in many ways a Western European nation but in many ways not, has found itself straddling a sort of a boundary between ideologies. (239) On the one hand, it espouses the same liberal values held by the Europeans, of forming economic and diplomatic ties, the establishment of the liberal "separate peace," so to speak. However, even as it speaks these noble words, it finds itself stomping on Panama and Chile, reaching out to slap at Iraq. It is not free from the need to act in the Hobbesian world of anarchy and strife. (211) This fundamental disagreement drives much of the tension over foreign affairs that has arisen between Washington and the European governments in the recent past. (Ibid) It is in offering a historical explanation for this state of affairs that Kagan excels. He dismisses outright the possibility that some abstruse national character might be to blame, pointing out that in many respects Europe and America have recently switched places, and behaviors accordingly, on the world stage. (214) Europe from the time of the Westphalian peace until the World Wars was the bloody realm of machtpolitik, the constant power plays at home and abroad that characterize especially the colonial period. As the locus of power in the Hobbesian sense, the Europeans historically believed in it and wielded it without hesitation. The timid young America, subject to the persecution of hostile European empires for much of its early life, learned accordingly to make use of the weapons of the weak: political and economic diplomacy. (215) However, Europe laid waste to itself in the two World Wars that can rightly be called the climax of machtpolitik, eliminating the concrete basis it once held for world domination.

Phenomenology and Healthier Organismic Self

Exploring the terminology of the word Phenomenology and its etymology, presents me with an overture dating back to a long tradition of philosophical literature. I find it very difficult to try and explain what phenomenology means, because expressing significant ideas of one philosopher, will exclude others, and my choices will contradict the very idea of what phenomenology is beginning to mean for me. Drawing examples from phenomenological theoretical sources, I shall integrate personal experience to support what I understand by the term phenomenology.In brief, I am going to start to explain what I understand about the term Phenomenology by giving answers with references from theoretical sources. I shall, in no particular order along this essay, give examples to support the reason why I think phenomenology is important in Counselling and Psychotherapy. Lastly, I intent to discuss my current ability to understand my own, and another person’s worldview with some examples.The ter m Phenomenology originates from the Greek word phainomenon, meaning appearance, that which shows itself, and, logos meaning science or study. As Hans Cohn puts it, â€Å"the Greek word ‘phenomenon’ is derived from a verb meaning to appear, to come into the light, and ‘logos’, on the other hand, is rooted in a Greek verb meaning ‘to say’. (Cohn, 1997:9-10). To me this suggests, come into light through speech, or enlighten oneself through speech. In simple terms phenomenology is the study of how things appear to be.In order to acknowledge the phenomenon of perception, Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), developed a method from his former teacher’s philosophical intentionality, Franz Brentano (1838-1917) that explains how reality cannot be grasped directly because it is available only through perceptions of reality, which are representations of it in the mind. This is a method that attempts to describe phenomena without prior assumptions, by rejec ting prior beliefs or consciousness about things, events and people.His aim was to find a way to transcend subjectivity and understand phenomenon through experience as the source of conscious knowledge (Dermot Moran, 2002:1-22). He intended by this to suspend or bracket events, to go beyond the usual choices of perception to describe the things as they really are. Husserl’s phenomenological method includes concepts of Noema, ‘the object of our attention, or, blocks of meaning’, Noesis to mean, ‘the experience as it is experienced and the act of consciousness itself, or, process of conferring meaning’, and Bracketing ‘an act of suspending our prejudices and usual interpretations’ (Van Deurzen, 2005: 154).At this stage, these concepts are helping me to frame old acknowledged ‘blocks’ and consciously describe them. It is also helping me to bring to my awareness some of my behaviour patterns, which I was unaware of, or aware in hindsight, but unaware of their reasons. Husserl’s method is ingenious in that it brings to light my ‘perspective dynamics’ (sense of reality, prejudices, family dynamics) and helps me to understand and realise how to locate my blocks. I can now begin to verbalise enigmatic reactions and unveil covert fears, when truth about my character and individual qualities begin to be more approachable and real.I very often have been lost in my own personal history not knowing any other way out of it. ‘This felt like a block in my life loosing touch, feeling alienated within myself and therefore, preventing the self to extend towards other people as fully as I would wish. In my understanding of phenomenology in the above example, my own blocks can prevent me from living in the moment of now. The examples that will follow, there are so many thoughts and emotions distracting me from the moment of now.Learning to make conscious my personal assumptions in the form of noem a, noesis and bracketing, an aspect of phenomenological reduction called Epoche, was to learn how to suspend prejudice, frame a particular behaviour in focus, and examine the way I view things and people. I don’t know if it is possible to translate this process of reduction in all layers of my behaviour. But what I do know, is that this reduction process has taught me to be aware, in a more awake state, of my hidden intentionality and to take responsibility, or better own my thoughts and actions consciously because very often I searched for the blame outside of myself.And the search was not to be found outside, but the understanding of those reactions is to be found deep inside of me. ‘Bracketing is necessary because the phenomenological inquiry is not mere fact-finding, it is the apprehension of intentional acts’ (Van Deurzen, 2005: 154). Husserl’s transcendental Phenomenology hasn’t particularly been followed by his students and former colleagues such as Martin Heidegger (Spinelli, 1989:2-3). A remark from Paul Ricoeur follows ‘that phenomenology is the story of the deviations from Husserl; â€Å"the history of phenomenology is the history of Husserlian heresies† (Moran, 2002:2).I find that Husserl’s at the time controversial scientific opinions allows phenomenological progression. But his findings are a good basis to question what our true values are, to allow us to investigate our potential to be good therapists. Why is the relationship between Phenomenological philosophy, Existential, Person- centred Counselling and Psychotherapy, important in counselling and psychotherapy? I very soon started to comprehend that phenomenology addresses key questions of human experience and that this attempts to examine the process of subjective human nature, without being indoctrinated by some fixed theory.Philosophers have written a great deal about the nature of the self, and it is useful for psychotherapists to refl ect if they are addressing human issues of existence from the right angle or just emphasising one from an infinity of possibilities, or simply if the theory needs progression. One concern that I think relevant to consider is that psychotherapy, particularly existential and person-centred counselling, focus on the promotion of the client’s autonomy (Sanders, 2004). Are the theories open enough to offer that autonomy, or are they in its effort to make sense of a state of mind, limiting its variability?In my opinion, it is essential to have an uncluttered mind which is free from unprejudiced assumptions when approaching psychotherapy and counselling. Existential therapists for example, put more emphasis on the existence, than on the essence through the phenomenological reduction, because they do not wish to suspend existence. Carl Rogers‘s (1902-1987) concept of phenomenology maintains that knowledge of individual perceptions of reality is required for the understanding of the human behaviour, and suggests that we live in accordance with our subjective awareness (Nye, 1992:97).Rogers believed that human beings need the right psychological and environmental conditions to allow the troubled self to change and find a healthier organismic self. ‘Necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change’ (Kirshenbaum & Henderson, 1990:219). There are three core conditions out of the six sufficient conditions: Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR), meaning truly accepting the person as they are with no pre-conceived judgements intruding in the process of the relationship between client and counsellor.Empathy, meaning listening carefully, leaves aside my conditions of worth, and, Congruence, meaning genuine authenticity within the counselling relationship (Hough, 1998:103-104). I found a way to process these conditions through phenomenology. I can see the parallel between person-centred and existential psychotherapy, because for examp le, Rogers’s therapy involves the therapist's entry into the client's unique phenomenological world, without attempting to search for unconscious motives, but rather concentrate on immediate conscious experience and expectations (Sanders, 2004:4).These conditions have to be processed within myself first, before I can attempt to offer them to other people. To me, there was an intellectual and emotional understanding of how to integrate Rogers’ core conditions when with other people, but I was missing the link ‘how’ to do it, because the theory felt all very delicate, non-directive and carved for those who were born with those qualities. I wanted it to be part of my daily make up, but I many times regressed to old habits, and felt I was back to square zero.This is the reason why I think phenomenology is important in counselling and psychotherapy. It is a method that allows us to strip down any masks or shadows we have and work on many of our unprocessed cond itions of worth, for a healthier organismic experiencing. I have been fortunate to find the path to work on my true self, and something definitely happened in my conscious mind caused by the above learning cues. I can honestly describe with some contentment that I am processing my projections successfully with my environmental relationships.The example that follows, describes a significant event that showed me I have brought into light what looked like a projection into my full conscious. Right at the beginning of the academic year, I used to hear one of my colleagues speak, and I used to feel some irritation. I didn’t know the cause. It was only after the third week that I questioned myself the reason why because the symptom persisted. I wrote on my journal: I feel I was quite disrespectful today towards ‘Blue Sky’ when she was speaking in the group experience. (Blue Sky is a pseudonym name.I give all my course group colleagues a pseudonym name to keep their ide ntity protected). I reflected on my interrupting her several times while she was speaking. Interrupting felt intruding because something was not flowing. I like Blue Sky but I have ambivalent feelings towards her. I still don’t know what and why I feel the way I do. She is lovely and warm and welcoming and emotionally intelligent †¦ Today, my tutors introduced philosophy to the group. It is fascinating to be introduced to the question about subjectivity.Our subjective truth is based on our subjective human experience. Is this going to help me to find out about my incognitos? †¦ I don’t want to be lost in my own personal history and yet I do want to know all those parts of me that hurt and why. In learning phenomenology and the wish to get acquainted with those parts of me that remain unclear, provoked some sort of brewing threatening sensation. Nevertheless, over the next few weeks I went through a very painful learning curve. Phenomenology helped me to disc over my irritability about Blue Sky.After class, we took the train together and we were talking fluidly, when all of sudden, that cloudy irritable sensation about her struck back again, and I noticed it affected my congruent and empathic responses towards her. She must have felt it because our conversation fell flat. When she left the train, I knew it wasn’t her doing. I knew I was transferring something berried deep in me. I couldn’t write my journal for the rest of the journey as I usually do, and was suspended over that event that just happened.I went back to that feeling that made me feel that way, and I connected the event. I knew somebody 24 years ago that looked like Blue Sky. I was struck by the physical and verbal similarities and even more surprised how the arms and body expressions are so similar. Why didn’t I see that before? She was my then husband’s ex-girl-friend. It was a very painful experience at the time, because she didn’t seem to be able to forget him, and I could see her pain, and with that she was hurting my relationship with my husband by not wanting to give him up.Linking the irritation about Blue Sky with a totally unconnected old event, is proof that unresolved emotional and psychological experiences impedes reciprocal interaction and communication with another person in the present. For this reason, I was so happy to release Blue Sky out of my perception, and see her for what she really is. On that same week another projection towards one of my tutors was resolved, and when I discovered what it was, I experienced that same relieved sensation. I am now able to see my tutor for whom he is showing to be and not for what I was projecting.To me this is a sign that I am learning to identify my introjects, and not just let the natural attitude react as the victim of my conditions of worth. I feel that I am growing towards my potential, in Rogerian terms called actualising tendency, for a healthier organis mic self (Mearns & Thorne, 1988:11-14). In Gestalt terms this is described as healthy cycle, the drive towards actualisation of the self (Clarkson, 1989:27). Although these projections were resolved, I continued to feel a threatening sensation that there was more to come and I even felt physically sick over a period of two weeks with sleepless symptoms and anxiety.I felt all my toxicities were coming to the surface as a result of this process and told this to the group. All the present negative experiences were mirrored in the way I was articulating myself. The group reacted very strongly when I used the word toxic to describe myself, and said that they didn’t experience me that way. It was with the group process that I realised I was using punitive self-description, such as ‘I am toxic‘, that were introjects from a significant other’s values imposed upon me.I was beginning to believe those descriptions about me, and owning them. My language was showing sel f-condemnation in front of the group, but in truth I was using the group as a healthy pillar, or in Gestalt (form) terms, healthy cycle, to test my organismic experience of failure, and to examine the accuracy of my introjects (Clarkson, 1989:27). What came to the surface was how I feel vulnerable and unsupported at home. This showed me a dysfunction in the boundary disturbance of my private cycle, and a disclosure of my coping mechanisms.By believing the negative description of my significant other, I’m taking in the other person’s projection. I showed therefore a coping mechanism called confluence, which is a merging sense of self with the projection of the other. Patricia Clarkson explains that Fritz Perls saw these coping mechanisms ‘only as neurotic when used chronically and inappropriately ‘†¦ they are useful and healthy when authentically chosen temporarily†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ The other person‘s negative view of me is often things they cannot a cknowledge or accept in themselves.There are other three most important psychological coping mechanisms, out of the seven fixed Gestalts called, introjection, meaning to take in values without questioning them; projection, as explained above, and retroflection meaning inability to externalise emotion, the act of directing a difficult emotion such as anger at oneself rather than at somebody who has provoked the emotion (Clarkson, 1989:42-45). What I have learned from these experiences is how some of my own subjectivities and defences can get in the way of being open to other people.I would be carrying a false-self when offering non-judgemental acceptance, empathic and genuineness towards others, if I haven’t inwardly processed my conditions of worth. This process of dismantling my projections so intensely are absolutely essential in that I am responsible for knowing myself to the fullest of my capacity before I come in serious helping contact with clients. There is a danger of not resolving blocks that can interfere with a therapeutic relationship, in that clients can become the projection of the counsellor.This is why I think phenomenology is important in counselling and psychotherapy, because it helps us to put in practice the process of identifying our troubles and put it aside in order to be able to understand another person’s world view to the fullest of our competency. I do befriending volunteering once a week, and I noticed that my listening skills have improved and that my natural attitude for interpreting is decreasing, leaving room for the client to find meaning in the description of their feelings.I noticed that the quality of the relationship with some of my clients is deepening in that we are allowing more sensitive layers of hurt to surface. Clients on the search of a healthier organismic self will benefit the most from a therapeutic relationship when the counsellor can facilitate deepest understanding for the client’s percept ion of their world. This is only possible, if the counsellor has developed skills to discern about what is the client’s concern and what is the counsellor’s projection.A good relationship can only be built as far as a counsellor’s skills facilitate the client to feel the space is theirs to explore in the present. Irvin Yalom puts beautifully, ‘†¦ a therapist helps a patient not by sifting through the past but by being lovingly present with that person; by being trustworthy, interested; and by believing that their joint activity will ultimately be redemptive and healing’ (Yalom, 1989:227).Just as I thought I have learned a substantial amount of phenomenological theory to expand openness in my thinking process, with the aim to prepare me to understand myself, and then another person’s worldview, I read about Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980). I find Sartre’s concept of nothingness, that human beings are essentially emptiness and that we are constantly creating and reinventing ourselves, mind blowing. The human tragedy is that we aspire to being definite and fixed as objects are’; ‘†¦ human paradox: on the one hand we are nothing definite and, because of this, on the other hand we are able to become many different things†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Sartre would call what I described in the above paragraphs about introjects, ‘bad faith’ as an important human strategy. To be in bad faith is to perform role-plays in the here-and-now to cope with situations (van Deurzen, 1997:45- 48).In conclusion, phenomenology has opened gates to infinite possibilities of thinking consciously, supplying me with more space to understand how to be with other people. It is hardly surprising and I can understand why psychotherapy chooses to draw wisdom from phenomenological philosophy, because there seams to be a flux with no fix point to allow further exploration of the human distinctive many layered qualities. What is special and significant about this Phenomenological movement is its evolving history in search for truth in perceptions and beyond perceptions.My argument that my ability to understand another person’s world view, lies in my ability to comprehend and integrate all of the above discussed theoretical processes in my behaviour. The vignette ‘Blue Sky’ illustrates my present ability to recognise limits in my character and the willingness to change. I have set myself in an un-compromised path to know myself profoundly for both the benefit of my self-development and ultimately for the benefit of my future clients.I can choose the state of my mind and the emotions attached to it, and that therefore, interactions between me and other people will be of an egalitarian and mutual understanding. The examples I gave about my tutor and voluntary placement with clients, illustrate my endeavour to be fully authentic and transparent in all parts of me, including the understanding of relationship’s phenomenon. I could give other examples of how interactions with other people were successful, but they would have not demonstrated the difficulties and the painful metamorphosis I am going through towards the route of understanding myself, and others.

My Successful Friend Idiom Story for ESL Students

Here is a story about a successful friend who has had a fantastic career. Try reading the story one time to  understand the gist  without using the idiom definitions. On your second reading, use the definitions to help you understand the text while learning new idioms. Finally, youll find idiom definitions and a short quiz on some of the expressions at the end of the story.  Ã‚   My Successful Friend My friend Doug has really done well for himself in life. Im very proud of him and all of his achievements! We get together every year or so for a two or three-day hike in Oregon. Its a great time to reflect on how life is going, talk about old times and have new adventures. Let me tell you a little bit about Doug. It was clear from the beginning that he was going places. He did very well in school, and everyone knew he was a smart cookie. Not only were his grades good, but he was also an outstanding athlete, as well as keeping his nose clean. Some accused him of being squeaky clean, but that didnt bother him. He wasnt going to let anyone rain on his parade!   After he graduated from college, he decided to go to New York. As the song goes: If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere! Back in those days, New York was a hotbed of innovation. Doug was a product design specialist and had some great designs on tap. Unfortunately, he didnt immediately succeed. Things werent easy in the beginning, and it took him a while to learn the ins and outs of the Big Apple. In any case, it soon became clear to him that he needed to make some brownie points with his director. He decided he would volunteer to create a presentation for a new product at the companys yearly dog and pony show.   The boss wasnt so sure, but the decision about who would make the presentation wasnt carved in stone. In the end, the manager decided that Doug would do a good job. Doug gladly accepted the challenge and decided to make quite an impression. He wasnt exactly going to reinvent the wheel, but he knew he could improve on past presentations. He felt that giving a great presentation would improve his standing in the company. The day of the presentation arrived, and, no surprise, Doug did an outstanding job. His presentation was informative, and he didnt blow any smoke. Where there were problems, he pointed them out and made suggestions as to how to improve the situation. Long story short, because of his excellent presentation the director realized that he was a genuine article. Doug started taking more and more responsibility at the company. Within three years, he had sealed the deal on the development of two of his best ideas. As they say, the rest is history.   Idioms Used in the Story be on a roll to have one success after another has a string of successes  Big Apple New York New Yorkblow smoke to fake or provide false information in order to gain somethingbrownie points extra goodwill  carved in stone not changeable  dog and pony show a presentation during which a companys best products are showngenuine article real true not fakego places to become successfulhotbed of something an area that is famous for a certain type of industry or successins and outs the details and inside information about a place or situation  keep ones nose clean to not make any illegal or unethical mistakeson tap readyrain on someones parade to criticize the success of someonereinvent the wheel to remake or invent something that already exists  seal the deal to make an agreement sign a contractsmart cookie very intelligent personsqueaky clean without fault not having problems or mistakes Quiz I think were ___________. All of our products are selling very well.This bag looks like its ______________. It doesnt look fake.We ________________ with our partners and start the project in May.The contract isnt ________________. We can still negotiate the details.Work with Anna and shell show you the ____________ of the company.I dont want to _________ your _________, but there are still a few problems.I think shell ______________. Shes very intelligent AND competitive.  I wouldnt believe that. Hes known for ______________.   Quiz Answers on a rollgenuine article  sealed the dealcarved in stoneins and outsrain on your paradego placesblowing smoke